Archer to be stripped of peerage under proposals to House of Lords
The Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer of Thoroton said he planned to change the rules so peers convicted of an offence would lose both membership of the house and their titles.
“Parliament is a privilege, not a possession,” Lord Falconer told peers.
“We therefore propose that in the future, such peers will forfeit their membership of the house exactly as they would if they were MPs.
“In addition, they will be deprived of their peerage.”
Crucially, he added: “The provision will have retrospective effect.”
Lord Archer of Weston-super-Mare, who was released from prison in July after serving two years of a four-year sentence for perjury, would therefore most likely be affected by the change.
It came on the day the multi-millionaire novelist was taking part in his first public engagement since winning parole.
Lord Archer, who is still on probation, made a speech on prison reform at a conference in Oxford this afternoon.
Lord Falconer added that disgraced peers would be free to seek renewed membership of the House of Lords by applying to a new appointment’s commission or to their party. News that Lord Archer could be stripped of his peerage was welcomed by MPs from all the main parties yesterday.
The Labour MP for Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley George Foulkes and a former Scottish Office minister, said: “This is really good news. MPs have always been debarred from sitting in the Commons if they have been convicted of certain offences.
“It has always been a ridiculous anomaly that peers who have been in prison should have been able to go back into the Lords to take part in legislation and vote on issues that affect the British people,” he said.
Mr Foulkes added: “This has been an affront not just to democracy but to decency.
“The whole country will rejoice that this loophole has been closed by the government.”
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